Skip to main content

Major highway improvement project on track in Colombia

In Colombia plans are now in hand for a major highway improvement project. Concesión Pacífico Tres is joint concession operator of the tolled links for Colombia’s major commercial regions connecting with the Pacific port hub. US firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy has provided advice to Colombian Concessionaire Concesión Pacífico Tres SAS and its sponsors, MHC Ingeniería y Construcción de Obras Civiles and Construcciones El Cóndor, and Costa Rica’s infrastructure company Constructora MECO. The advice was
February 29, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
In Colombia plans are now in hand for a major highway improvement project. Concesión Pacífico Tres is joint concession operator of the tolled links for Colombia’s major commercial regions connecting with the Pacific port hub. US firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy  has provided advice to Colombian Concessionaire Concesión Pacífico Tres SAS and its sponsors, MHC Ingeniería y Construcción de Obras Civiles and Construcciones El Cóndor, and Costa Rica’s infrastructure company Constructora MECO. The advice was in connection with the structuring of a dual-currency project bond and financing package consisting of two tranches of bonds used to fund an extensive toll road improvement plan in Colombia. The offering is the first debt financing of its kind tied to a toll-road concession infrastructure plan of the Colombian National Infrastructure Agency.

Pacífico Tres is the entity created in 2014 as part of a 25-year concession with Colombia’s Ministry of Transportation to rehabilitate and operate a series of highways linking three of the country’s most commercially important regions. These are Valle del Cauca, Antioquia and Eje Cafetero and will connect to the key port of Buenaventura on Colombia’s Pacific coast.  The concession operator is Conexion Pacifico 3, jointly owned by three of Colombia’s leading construction companies.

In the first part of the offering, Pacífico Tres issued a tranche of US$260.4 million of Series A notes due 2035, yielding 8.25%.  In the second portion, the company issued COP$397 billion of Series B UVR-indexed notes due 2035, yielding 7.000%.  Both transactions closed on February 22nd 2016.

Proceeds of the transaction will go toward financing key aspects of the project, including improvement of existing roads, construction of new short road stretches, as well the construction of two large tunnels and several bridges. The improvements are expected to be completed over the next five years.

The complete financing package includes three separate loan tranches along with a liquidity facility provided by Financiera de Desarrolo Nacional (FDN), a Colombian state-owned economic development bank.

Related Content

  • Major Colombian highway projects underway
    January 22, 2021
    A series of major Colombian highway projects is now underway.
  • Plans in hand for key Colombian highway project
    October 27, 2015
    Construction will commence on a major highway project in Colombia in the first quarter of 2016. The project for the Pacifico 1 road will be carried out by Colombian construction consortium Concesionaria Vial del Pacifico (Covipacifico). The commencement of construction is dependent on environmental licenses and land purchases however. The construction work will take five years to compete. The 49km Pacifico 1 road will cost around US$613.64 million to construct. Once complete the road will improve connectivi
  • Consortium Via al Puerto to finish Colombia’s Buga-Buevantura road
    May 24, 2016
    Colombia’s National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) has approved Consorcio Estructura Plural Via al Puerto to build the remaining 26.5km of the Buga-Buenaventura dual carriageway. Construction costs will be just under US$358 million with another $645 million likely needed to maintain and operate the public-private partnership road for 30 years. Works include construction of two tunnels, 12 bridges, 7.5km of cycle lanes, as well as maintenance of 111km of the main road, according to a report by El Pais new
  • Construction completion for Colombia concession contracts
    December 14, 2017
    Colombia’s massive road and highway development programme is still moving ahead, with a series of major concession projects due for completion by 2020. A consortium titled Via al Mar is on track to finish construction of the Cartagena-Barranquilla highway in August 2019, for which the company has a 25-year concession agreement. The tender process for the final stretches of the Ruta del Sol II highway will commence shortly.